Chef Craig’s Featured Dish

Comfort food done light

One of the dishes that I feel best exemplifies the “Comfort food done light” concept here at EVOQ is the half roasted chicken. To me this is a comforting dish because it reminds me of what I eat in my house with my family. This dish is a take on the classic Latin dish, “arroz con pollo.” No matter what country you are in throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, if you go to someone’s house, they will have a version of Arroz con Pollo in their dinner rotation. The version we prepare here is Peruvian. My wife is from Peru and this is one of the dishes we prepare for our family at home. The beauty of this dish is that it has very strong flavors, but it is also pretty healthy because everything is roasted and not fried. The dish consists of a Semi-boneless ½ chicken that has been marinated with spices, wine, and lemon juice. The rice for the dish is cooked with “Aji Amarillos” which are a chili unique to Peru, cilantro and beer. It is garnished with “salsa criolla” which is a condiment found on virtually every dinner table in Peru consisting of red onions, lime juice, cilantro, and aji amarillos. Every country in the world has some type of comfort food and our job is to take those dishes and turn them into something unique and approachable for our guests here at EVOQ.